By SUZANNE DOWNING
July 21, 2026 – Republican gubernatorial candidate Click Bishop brought in nearly $330,000 during the latest reporting period, powered by two enormous $50,000 contributions and substantial support from Alaska business, construction, mining and seafood interests.
But Bishop’s campaign also spent money at a faster pace than it raised it, burning through the $130,259 it had carried forward from its previous report.
Bishop’s 30-day report, covering Feb. 2 through July 17, shows $329,988 in new income and $460,247 in expenditures. The committee began the period with $130,258 in cash and ended with a zero balance.
That does not mean every dollar was spent on campaigning. On the final day of the reporting period, Bishop transferred $66,244 to the newly formed joint Bishop and Schuerch campaign for governor and lieutenant governor. Bishop had selected Greta Schuerch as his running mate in April.
Excluding that transfer, Bishop’s old campaign committee spent approximately $394,003 on operations during the period, about $64,000 more than it raised.
The two largest donors were John Ellsworth, listed as president of AFC, and Jim Jansen, chairman of Lynden Incorporated. Each contributed $50,000.
Together, those two checks accounted for more than 30% of everything Bishop raised during the five-and-a-half-month reporting period.
Other major contributors included John Lincoln, president and CEO of NANA, who gave $15,000, and Andrew Halcro, chairman of Alaska Rent A Car, who contributed $10,000.
Scott Blake, president and CEO of Copper River Seafoods, gave $5,000 in addition to providing $300 worth of food and beverages for an event. Margaret Nordale of Fairbanks, a general contractor associated with Ghemm Co., gave $5,000, as did retired Fairbanks resident Daniel Himebauch.
Former state Sen. Gary Wilken contributed $5,205.
Bishop also received strong financial support from people connected to Alaska’s commercial seafood industry.
Joe Bundrant, CEO of Trident Seafoods, and Diane Bundrant each contributed $5,205 in April. The report shows the Bundrants later contributed another $1,500 each in June, bringing their combined reported support during the period to more than $13,400.
Stefanie Moreland, executive vice president of public affairs for Trident Seafoods, gave a combined $3,602. Robert Zuanich of Silver Bay Seafoods contributed $3,123, and John Henderschedt, chief executive of Phoenix Processor Limited Partnership, gave $3,123.
Cora Campbell, CEO of Silver Bay Seafoods, also contributed $3,123.
The report shows some comparatively large contributions from Alaska business figures, including $3,123 from Brad Bourdon of ICE Services and $3,000 from Thomas Bourdon, the company’s president. Anchorage lobbyist Michael Pawlowski gave $2,500.
Bishop’s spending shows a campaign that has been investing heavily in advertising, consulting, printing, signs and statewide travel.
The largest vendor was Anchorage-based Blayde Communications, which received a total of $104,907. At least $65,000 of that was identified as digital advertising on Alaska news websites, Spotify, iHeart, PodcastOne, Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, DirecTV and other platforms. Another $39,907 payment was reported with the purpose listed only as “TBA.”
Mason Consulting (Shannon Mason) of Juneau received $50,000 in five monthly $10,000 payments for campaign management, social media and digital content production.
The campaign paid approximately $29,224 to Las Vegas-based RMC for consulting, voter data, telephone services, text messages, digital content, Facebook and Instagram advertising, video advertising and printed materials. It paid another $7,680 to McShane LLC at the same Las Vegas address for consulting and telephone services.
Alaska Airlines received approximately $35,529 through 58 separate transactions, reflecting Bishop’s extensive travel around the state. Additional campaign money went toward hotels, rental cars, meals, meeting expenses and event registrations.
Printing and signage were another major expense. Color Art and Color Art Printing received a combined total of about $26,466. Advance Printing received approximately $21,006, while PIP Printing, Alaska Litho, Anchorage Printing and other vendors received thousands more for postcards, signs and campaign materials.
The report demonstrates that Bishop is capable of attracting major Alaska donors, including two contributors willing to write $50,000 checks. But it also shows an expensive campaign operation that is consuming money quickly.
For the entire campaign, Bishop reports $613,594 in income and $623,594 in expenditures, spending that exceeds reported income by exactly $10,000. The report nevertheless lists no debt, no deficit and no remaining cash in the old committee.
The newly formed Bishop-Schuerch joint committee starts its next reporting period with the $66,244 transferred from Bishop’s original campaign account.
Bishop’s numbers put him well ahead of self-funded former Gov. Bill Walker’s fundraising pace, but far behind the extraordinary haul reported by Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. Unlike Walker, Bishop’s campaign is being financed primarily by donors rather than by the candidate and his running mate.
The question for Bishop now is whether he can continue attracting large checks at a pace sufficient to support a campaign that has already spent more than $623,000.
Outside his campaign, there’s a union-based independent expenditure group that has over $400,000 in it, almost all of it from the Operating Engineers and Carpenters unions.
2 thoughts on “Click Bishop raises $330,000 but spends faster than he raises as governor’s race heats up”
Surprisingly I’ve seen a few of his signs up around Kodiak.
Those 5 words “spends faster than he raises” are all you need to know about what’s coming if Bishop’s elected.
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Probably won’t see “spends faster than he raises” on Click’s campaign posters, but words have a way of becoming legend, no?
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Then there’s this from KTUU-TV, Jun. 6, 2017: “Enter Sen. Click Bishop’s S.B. 12, a bill quietly introduced by the Fairbanks Republican in January that received zero committee hearings and little public attention. While the proposal is dubbed an “education head tax,” the suggested tax is remarkably different than the flat-rate school tax Alaskans paid until 1980. Under a true head tax, everyone would pay the exact same amount.”
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Wouldn’t be surprised if more than a few folks helped Click remember this in a way that $330,000 can’t fix.
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Love the portrait by the way …taken, no doubt, from the kneeling position one assumes when the Ruling Class speaks, was it?
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Or was someone just trying to look taller than Bernadette?